Texting While Driving: Teens Not Top Offenders

49% of commuters send text messages or emails when behind the wheel, compared to 43% of teenagers, says new report from AT&T.

More business professionals than teenagers are now texting while driving, according to a new report from AT&T. Worse, 98% of those surveyed said they understand how dangerous texting while driving is, but they admitted to doing it anyway.

AT&T, together with SKDKnickerbocker and Beck Research, polled some 1,200 teens between the ages of 15 and 19, along with an unspecified number of adult drivers. The results show that teenagers are moderately smarter about texting while driving than the adults. But that's still not saying much.

The results reveal that 49% of commuters send text messages or emails when behind the wheel, compared to 43% of teenagers. Six out of 10 commuters polled said three years ago they never would have sent messages when driving, and 40% admitted that the behavior has become a habit.

An interesting finding of the study shows that teens regard texting while driving and texting when at a red light as two separate activities.

Teens clearly understand that texting while driving is bad, with 97% confirming that the activity is dangerous. But that number drops to 70% when they're asked about texting while stopped at a red light. In addition to those who admit to texting while driving, 60% of teens say they send messages when stopped at a red light, 61% glance at their phones while driving, and 73% glance at their phones when stopped at a red light.

AT&T didn't provide similar results for the adults polled, but the teens ratted out their parents.

Nearly 9 out of 10 teens said their own parents are good role models when it comes to texting behind the wheel, but they call adults hypocrites. Nearly 8 in 10 teens said they see adults (but not necessarily their own parents) texting behind the wheel all the time.

AT&T is aggressive about promoting safe driving practices. April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and AT&T is using these poll results to call attention to its own "It Can Wait" campaign. If you've purchased an AT&T handset recently, you've probably noticed a sticker protecting the screen with the "It Can Wait" message printed on it. It's a particularly important issue to businesses because they can be held liable if their employees cause accidents when texting behind the wheel.

"Businesses can help keep their employees and others on the road safe by encouraging responsible behavior behind the wheel, including obeying all laws related to the use of electronic devices," said U.S. Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Thomas J. Donohue.

Laws vary by state, but the dangers of texting behind the wheel are well documented. A study commissioned by Car and Driver several years ago showed that drivers who text are often more dangerous than drivers who are drunk.

Companies would do well, in this case, to heed AT&T's message and make sure employees are not sending messages when their eyes should be on the road.

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If you work for a company the requires you to be that connected, you're probably in the wrong place. There's no excuse for risking the lives of those around you just to get a reply to a text or email out a few minutes sooner, but scarcely a day goes by when I don't have to dodge someone thumbing away at a phone while they should be paying attention to the world around them. One can only hope that when these morons do mess up in a really catastrophic way, they find a nice bridge abutment to hit instead of a soccer mom in a minivan full of kids.

Driving while texting should be treated exactly like drunk driving, Won't happen, though, until we get an organization like MADD. Too bad that MADWT doesn't trip lightly off the tongue.

This shouldn't be surprising-- as we become a more mobile workforce, workers are spending more time responding to emails from their managers, co-workers, and clients while out of the office. Still, this doesn't excuse any irresponsible behavior, but I can definitely see how adults would be worse offenders than their kids, especially considering all the educational programs geared toward preventing teens' texting while driving. Perhaps more of these messages should be aimed at the adults.

Among 688 respondents, 46% have deployed mobile apps, with an additional 24% planning to in the next year. Soon all apps will look like mobile apps – and it's past time for those with no plans to get cracking.